Inquiry launched to scrutinise response to coronavirus

The Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee have launched a joint inquiry into lessons to be learned from the response to the coronavirus pandemic so far.

The two committees will jointly conduct evidence sessions examining the impact and effectiveness of action taken by government and the advice it has received.

Each committee will draw on specialist expertise and call witnesses to consider a range of issues including: the deployment of non-pharmaceutical interventions like lockdown and social distancing rules to manage the pandemic; the impact on the social care sector; the impact on BAME communities; testing and contact tracing; modelling and the use of statistics; government communications and public health messaging; the UK’s prior preparedness for a pandemic; and the development of treatments and vaccines.

Jeremy Hunt and Greg Clark, who chair each committee, said: “Parliament has a crucial role in scrutinising the actions of government at a time when the country is in the grip of a crisis such as the current pandemic with its tragic impact on lives and livelihoods. Important lessons need to be learned that can help inform further decisions that will need to be taken in the months ahead. It is crucial to learn and apply them now since the Public Inquiry that the Prime Minister has promised is likely to be some time away.

“Our committees will jointly learn what went well, what didn’t, and what lessons must be learnt at this point in the pandemic. We will use the independence of our cross-party committees and weekly detailed questioning of witnesses to consider the decisions taken and the evidence they were based on and assess their effectiveness. We will develop clear recommendations so that the UK can benefit from the lessons learned for future stages of this pandemic and for future crises.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said: “From the testing debacle, chronic shortages of PPE, and the crisis in care homes, to the failure to adequately protect people from BAME backgrounds, the government’s response to the Covid pandemic so far has fallen far short – with potentially devastating consequences.

“With the UK’s Covid death the highest in Europe, and with more than 53,000 excess deaths since March in England alone, the failure to control the spread of this deadly virus here requires serious scrutiny.

“The BMA called for a rapid review of government preparedness for a second wave as far back as June with early findings ready by August. Now daily infections are reaching record highs, so this inquiry is long overdue and urgent. We need a thorough but timely investigation with tangible, ongoing recommendations; an inquiry that unearths the mistakes but also provides learning from the last six months to inform how this second spike and future pandemics should be managed.

“Our members – the doctors who have served on the frontline doing battle with this deadly virus – want to know that they will be protected this time and able to provide the care that patients need, including the thousands who had treatment postponed during the first wave. Doctors also need guarantees that everything possible is being done to prevent further spread of the infection, which would lead to many more people suffering and could place insurmountable pressure on the NHS. The views of frontline clinicians must inform this inquiry and the BMA looks forward to working constructively with the committees to ensure the voices of our members are heard.”